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Editorials
Wednesday, July 12, 2000Irradiation plant
should help farmersTHE dedication of an irradiation facility at Keaau in the Puna district of the Big Island marks the beginning of a new era in the production of papayas and other fruits in Hawaii. It means that a more satisfactory method of eliminating fruit flies and other pests is in operation, carrying with it the potential of expanded markets in the mainland and Japan.The issue: A facility for treatment of papayas and other fruits with X-rays is opening on the Big Island.
Fruit fly infestation has plagued Hawaii farmers for decades, making it difficult to market their fruits beyond the islands. Bathing the fruit in hot water or vapor has been used to kill the insect larvae but those methods affect the taste.
Nuclear irradiation was proposed back in the 1980s. It would have produced more satisfactory results, but a scare campaign claiming that the fruit would be radioactive discouraged growers who feared consumer resistance.
Although an initiative aimed at blocking the establishment of a nuclear irradiation plant on safety grounds failed in 1998, the plant has never been built. However, the state has been helping growers ship fruit to a cobalt irradiator near Chicago since 1995.
Now a facility using X-rays rather than cobalt to kill the insect larvae is being opened. In addition to papayas, the plant will treat exotic fruits such as rambutan and lychee that are now being grown on the Big Island.
As a spokesman for the manufacturer, Titan Corp., noted, X-rays can be used to treat fruit when it's ripe. "It's more nutritious," he said. "It isn't being steamed for four hours, killing all those vitamins."
Besides preserving the fruit's taste, the X-ray treatment doubles or triples its shelf life, another important benefit. And it avoids the concerns surrounding nuclear materials. The process has been compared to an airport X-ray machine or a television set.
The company behind the plant is called Hawaii Pride LLC. Its owners, two local businessmen, say they hope to process up to 20 million pounds of fruit a year.
The Keaau facility is the first in the nation using X-rays to treat fruit. But Titan Corp. has opened an X-ray plant to treat meat in Sioux City, Iowa.
With the fruit fly problem solved, Hawaii's fruit growers could see a major expansion of production in a few years.
‘Aimee’s Law’ is
misguided legislationTHE murder of a college student in Pennsylvania has been exploited to push enactment of ill-advised federal legislation dictating criminal sentencing standards to states. It would require payments from one state to another because of crimes committed by repeat offenders. The proposal entails the federal government's intrusion on the states' criminal justice systems and is inappropriate.
Proponents of the federal arm twisting call it "Aimee's Law" after Aimee Willard, a 22-year-old student at George Mason University in Virginia who was murdered in suburban Philadelphia in 1996. Arthur Bomar, who had served 12 years in prison in Nevada for another murder, was convicted of killing her and sentenced to death.
Under the Senate's version of Aimee's Law, the state of Nevada would have been required to pay for the arrest, prosecution and imprisonment costs of Bomar in Pennsylvania. It also would have required Nevada to pay the Willard family up to $100,000.
The House bill would require states that paroled a person who committed a violent crime in another state to compensate the second state up to $100,000 in federal crime-fighting funds for its legal costs.
The proposals pertain to violent offenses committed by convicts paroled after serving sentences in other states for murder, rape or child molesting.
The 30 states that require convicts to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences behind bars would not face the federal sanctions.
Advocates of Aimee's Law point to Justice Department estimates that the average time served is 51/2 years for rape, four years for molesting a child and eight years for murder.
By lopsided margins, Aimee's Law passed the Senate in March and the House this week as amendments to more extensive crime bills. The votes can be attributed to politicians wanting to be depicted as being tough on crime.
However, the proposal's effect on crime would be negligible while its addition to bureaucracy would be significant. Its main purpose would be to apply leverage on state legislatures to strip sentencing discretion from judges.
That should not be the role of Congress.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
